DA 2010 Episode 14: Killing Myself to Live
by AngelExposed
Summary: It's all coming to a head. Monet has gotten to Genosha and now more problems are arising. Inside Rogue finds herself at the end of another brutal assault. (Extra long chapter 6 - finished - R&R).
1. Chapter 1: Flying Solo

Dismal Angel 2010 - Episode 14

Chapter 1: Flying Solo

Monet St Croix was not the kind of young woman who would scare easily.  With as more power in one fist as a wrecking ball and amazing invulnerability to most kinds of physical harm, she'd never felt the need to feel much fear for anything.

Until now.

Flying the X-Men's Blackbird jet had seemed simple at first.  Monet had watched the instructors a few times as they operated the controls with ease, it had not seemed so complicated.  Monet had felt that if even a simple woman such as Jean Grey could fly a jet then it must be quite easy.

How wrong she'd been. 

Getting it out of the hangar had been easy enough, with only one or two slight bumps to show for it, and whilst Monet had escaped the Xavier estate she'd wondered if mending the dents from the Blackbird would be as easy as banging the dimples out of a car. 

Still confident, she'd began her treacherous journey.  The blackbird was not handling as smoothly as she'd wanted it to, but she'd been confident enough her piloting had nothing to do with this and that Jean and Scott must have surely damaged the jet somehow prior to herself getting her hands on the controls.

Monet shook the thoughts off, and as she flew through the dark blue sky at an uncontrollable speed, she checked around the control panel area for any instructions but found none, and despaired.

_I don't NEED instructions_, Monet thought_.  This is EASY, even ROGUE can fly this thing and she's not exactly the quickest study.  If she can do it, I can_.

Monet had been noticing the dark clouds building up in the sky the further the jet sped towards its destiny.  She could hear high winds, and could feel the updrafts against the jet, and it would slightly rock to the left then the right under the strain.  

_You cannot allow this jet to get damaged anymore_,_ Monet_, Monet thought at herself, _you've already put dents in it, and this thing is worth more than my entire education_. 

Monet wished she'd thought to bring someone along with her, the whole journey had been very lonely.  In the past she'd never been fully alone.  She'd always had someone near her, and despite she'd usually be less than humble towards them, she realised that company had been valuable. 

Monet doubted she could do this alone and it had been foolish to think she could.  She was one person, and there was no telling how many of those clones they were, she'd seen more than five at the mansion, and surely if there could be five, there would be more.  If the X-Men were captive somewhere, it'd take more than five clones to hold them back.

"It's time to get in touch with Dr MacTaggart and Mr Cassidy," she said to herself sternly, "I know they're complete cretins and Mr Cassidy's silly little screaming isn't going to be much good, but I can't do this alone, I've gone as far as I can…" she glanced to the visual mapping system.

She'd been flying for hours, and her destination was still considerably far, .  "Where am I anyway?" she squinted her tired eyes towards the screen, "over Finland…NO!  What am I doing over FINLAND?!  I'm going the wrong way!!  This is so not as easy as it should be!" she frowned a little, "I haven't made any turns!"

She felt so much like crying.  She was meant to be in control, and competent, and had always proved to be so many times that to fail when she REALLY needed to be competent made her feel so inadequate.

"No, do not think like that," she told herself, hearing her own voice soothed her a little, "if you want to be one of the X-Men you need to prove yourself as a sufficient and stable member of the team, not a helpless girl."

Keeping one hand on the control, she pushed a bare finger over the touch screen and dragged her finger down the screen so that the map began to move under her finger, "right, Monet," she told herself sternly, "geography is one of your best subjects, lets see…" she frowned again deep in concentration.

Dragging her finger along the virtual map on the visual mapping system she began to plan out her route.

"Alright, I need to go straight over Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine…Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Egypt…Sudan…Uganda…" she began to mentally map these in her head.   "I'll be in this jet for the rest of my life…" she despaired.  She tapped the screen twice gently to zoom in on Africa.  

Monet began to rack her brains for the location of Genosha.  She'd been a child when she'd heard of it, eight years old, on a vacation with her father.  Her father had heard the story of a mad scientist who had been stationed on the island, who had been snatching children.  Monet smirked a little, her father would always remind her of this story every time she'd gone off on her own, how easily she could fall pray to this mad scientist. 

"Where were we vacationing?" she asked herself, it had been so long ago that as good as her memory skills were for remembering valuable information, sometimes the details of her personal life and childhood occasionally escaped her.  She zoomed in on Africa once more.  "Lets see…" she trailed her finger from Algeria, her native homeland.  She'd remembered being on her fathers private jet and seeing a visual map there of Africa as the plane made its way across the vast land. 

Monet could almost picture it and then it came to her.  "We were in Kenya…" she zoomed in on Kenya, and stared at the mapping system, hand trying to stay steady on the control as the Jet rocked with the powerful winds beneath.  "There…there's a couple of islands…" she tapped her finger repeatedly on the screen until she had zoomed in closer, a small cluster of Islands remained just east of Kenya, she zoomed in as far as she could, and was surprised to find the Island was named.  In white text on the screen it stood out clearly.

GENOSHA.

Monet laughed in relief that she'd located the island, "see," she told herself, smiling, "this isn't so hard after all," she glanced around the control panel, "right now…how do I contact the cretins…" she mumbled, seeing nothing to indicate what to press.

Monet drew her breath as a loud rumble caught her immediate attention and she realised it was storming, she'd been so caught up in the visual mapping system she hadn't noticed the weather quickly worsen.   She began to panic, knowing that with the weather increasingly worsening the communications would be in jeopardy.  

"Just when I think things are starting to get easy SOMETHING goes wrong," she sighed, searching the control panel frantically.  Finally she found a button marked 'comm' in tiny white text.  She decided to take a chance and pushed it hard.

A list of communication options became available, on the monitor that had been showing the visual mapping system.  She spoke each item clearly to herself trying to ignore the exhaustion that was building up inside herself.  Every vehicle the X-Men owned – both personal and business – was listed as well as properties the professor owned and various affiliates of the X-Men.  She found Muir Island on the list and tapped the text lightly to activate the touch sensitive screen.

A black screen appeared, green text moved across the screen announcing 'connecting'.  It was some moments before any connection came, and upon the screen, the image of Sean Cassidy appeared, although the transmission wasn't perfect, and the image would jump up and down and grey lines would make their way down the handsome face.

"Monet!  Blazes girl!  We've been huntin' high and low!  What do you think you're playin' at takin' off the way you did?!" Sean demanded, his eyes angry, his lip curled in a snarl.

"Mr Cassidy, there's no time to explain myself…" Monet ignored his anger.  Angry instructors, teachers and team-mates were something she was quite used to by now and she knew that when the time came she'd deal with it in her own way, by not letting it get to her.  "I'm flying over Finland on my way to Genosha."

"Lass.………..breaking.………..signal…………come back," Sean said, static interrupted his voice, the message breaking.

"The X-Men are in trouble, sir!" Monet cried at the screen, "They've all been taken to Genosha," she said, "It's a small Island east of Kenya…" Monet stated clearly, "you need to get here, now, the exact coordinates are—" she gaped as the screen went black, green text was flashing.

Connection Lost.

Monet screamed at the screen, "NO!!  Reconnect DAMN you!" she hit the reconnect button, but nothing happened.  She glanced around, lightning flashed off in the dark clouds, the storm had to be interfering with the signal.  She realised if she was going to help the X-Men she'd have to do it without the aid of Sean Cassidy and Moira MacTaggart.

"See what happens when you rush in without thinking, Monet?" She asked herself angrily, "no wonder all the instructors think you're a pain in the proverbial backside."

Lightning shot down in front of the blackbird, narrowly missing hitting the nose, Monet jumped grabbing the control sticks and hauling it all the way to the side.  The blackbird swayed and rattled as if in protest. 

"I shouldn't be up here with this storm going on…" she said to herself taking a deep breath to calm herself down, "but I can't just stop and slow down…if I do I might get there too late...the X-Men wouldn't stop to take a breather and wait for the storm to clear, they'd rush right in and face the danger for the sakes of their team-mates…" she told herself sternly.  "They'd do the right thing, and now I have to do the same…" she forced the controls in, and the blackbird began to gain speed.

Monet looked through the grey horizon of clouds ahead, the flickering of lightning upon the edges indicated it was still close by, she could hear the low rumbling more clearly now.

"I'm going to make it," she told herself firmly, "I'm going to be fine."


	2. Chapter 2: Get Over It

Dismal Angel 2010 - Episode 14

Chapter 2: Get Over It

"I'm going to make it," Kitty mumbled to herself as she stared at the food on the plate in front of her, "I'm going to be fine."

The canteen of the prison was large, and noise filled it, the sounds of plates and spoons

Rogue rolled her eyes, "It's fish, get over it."

"I don't eat fish!  I'm a vegetarian," Kitty despaired, she felt tearful, she'd been starving for some time and for the first time in two days, food was in front of her, only it was something she really didn't agree with eating.

"You should be thankful you're even getting fed," Lorna Dane admitted softly, she shoved her spoon into her fish, "people come in here and don't get fed for four or five days – the guards and clones just love to starve us prisoners."

Kitty ran her spoon over the fish lightly, making a face of absolute disgust, "I can't eat this," she sighed, pushing the plate away from her.  "Why fish?  Why not vegetables or something."

"Only thing I can imagine is this Island isn't ideal for growing things upon, and fish is probably the only thing that's obtainable around these parts," Lorna sighed quietly.  "It does get to the stage where after a while you see fish and you immediately feel like throwing up you've eaten so much of it…"

"Why spoons?" Kitty dropped her spoon discontentedly.

"Because forks have points and that makes it a weapon," Lorna replied, she glanced around the busy canteen.

"I don't see the others anywhere…" Rogue admitted softly.

"Yeah, you probably won't.  Most of the prisoners here are all on different time tables.  There's too many of us to all fit in here at once, so we come in shifts to eat."

"I wonder if they're alright…I'm worried about the Professor…and Piotr…and everyone…god I hate this fucking place," Kitty put her hands in her head, feeling like crying right at that moment.  The hope she'd had of escaping had been quickly relinquishing by each second with every new thing she learned about the GMCF.

Rogue touched Kitty's arm comfortingly, "hey, don't worry," she said quietly leaning nearer to murmur, "we'll be out of this place soon, right?"

Kitty shrugged, "I just don't know anymore," she uttered, she gestured to Lorna, "Lorna has been in here for two years!"

"Wow…what'd you do?" Rogue raised an eyebrow.

Lorna gave a strange smirk, "I was in a small group of mutants, we were somewhat like the X-Men, only not as educated or trained.  This massive trainwreck  happened and we were nearby so we helped get the victims out – having to use our powers of course – only a few of them were totally anti-mutant and when the cops arrived the victims accused us of attacking them with our powers and stuff…it got ugly.  We ended up in here."

Rogue groaned, "I can relate.  You try to be the hero and end up the victim yourself."

"Totally," Lorna took a small bite of her food.

"My neck itches," Kitty complained scratching the skin around the edges of the MX2Beetle lightly, "Kind of stings."

"You get used to it," Lorna replied.

Rogue was about to speak, but noticing a clone-guard stepping by she decided to hold her tongue, she took a few bites and waited until the clone was several feet away, and the noise of the prisoners chatting and eating would drown her voice out.  She leaned across the small square table to speak to Lorna.

"So we know—"

Lorna reached over and placed her hand upon Rogue's arm and grasped it hard to make her quieten down, she watched as the clone disappeared off between the tables further away.

Rogue raised an eyebrow.

"Just making sure he was gone," Lorna frowned a little, "you were saying?"

Rogue nodded, "yeah, so we know there are clones…with powers…there's obviously some kind of scientific experimentation shit going on here or something, don't you know anything else?"

"It's like I told Kitty," Lorna leaned a little closer to, her wide green eyes right on Rogue's, "it seemed to happen almost overnight really.  At first, we had just the general guards, you see them around.  They're the ones in black.  Then, about a year ago, the clones started appearing…but suddenly last week, they started showing these…powers…powers that they never had before…it's so freaky."

"What kind of powers?" Rogue asked, she wanted to confirm what she feared, that Remy's powers might have been passed onto the clones as well as his good looks and memories.

"They touch things…make them explode.  But that's not all…" Lorna stated carefully, "They…seem to have a heightened sense…they hear better now, their movement…it's all changed so fast…their strength is staggering, I mean more so than it was before, I've seen them just pick up people and just toss them like they didn't weigh anything, and I'm talking people as heavy as John Proudstar...and he must weigh at least two-twenty-five.  The speed, the agility, it's just…incredible…" Lorna said, "I've been watching – I mean I would think this could be a natural mutant manifestation, just like with us…but…they seem to have accomplished the talents of their powers so quickly it doesn't seem so natural to me as it should."

Kitty frowned, listening, remembering what she'd thought upon her encounter with the clone during the small fight – which she'd lost.

"Something wrong?" Rogue asked, noticing the look on Kitty's face.  Kitty's expression was anxious, her face pale, tired, her hair wiry, still tinged with blood no matter how hard Kitty had tried to wash it out.  Her sapphire eyes were dull, as if the life had been drained right out of them.  "You look like you've just had a thought."

Kitty nodded, "Yeah…when we were fighting with those two clones, I kind of noticed the strange way the one I was fighting was kind of moving.  You know that they have Remy's memory so they would know how to move right, and, well, Remy's movement is very graceful and quick and all, but…the clone was moving almost catlike…fast, quick, and stronger than I think Remy could be…it makes me wonder."

"Wonder what?" Rogue chewed her lip.

"That maybe Remy might not be the only one who's DNA was used in the clones.  I think these are probably a whole new breed of clone.  I mean, didn't Hank say that with his research that he couldn't just apply the X-Gene to a fully grown specimen and that it would have to be applied during the cloning process for it to work?"

Rogue nodded, "something along those lines."

"And we know that whoever is doing this has the ability to create an accelerated growth in a clone, I mean for all we know there could be a brand new clone in a matter of hours – fully charged with mutant powers…and god knows, this Scary Scientist Man has hundreds of us to chose from to take DNA from us to create a new breed of supermutant clone armies…oh my GOD, that's a scary thought."

Rogue drew her breath, the thought of the world being overtaken with thousands of clones like Remy was somewhat funny, and yet, frightening at the same time.  "It's bad enough there being one Remy in the world, imagine hundreds…thousands…even millions roaming around the world with those kinds of powers…terrorising the innocent…"

Kitty smirked a little at Rogue's comment, "Bad enough there being one Remy?" she asked, "I thought you still loved him."

"I do, I just think it's so many versions of him creeping around us every two minutes it's kind of making me hate him..."

"So…seriously, this…Remy guy…is the actual guy these Clones were made out of?  Copied??" Lorna asked, her eyes wider.

"Yeah," Kitty nodded.

"When you said it I didn't quite believe it," Lorna admitted, "that's kind of fucked up…I mean…you're in LOVE with the original and there's copies of him sauntering left right and centre every day and night, that has GOT to fuck with your head," she glanced at Rogue.

Rogue gave a tiny nervous smile, "Well…my head is so fucked up already that I doubt having anything else fuck with it is really going to make much difference anymore," she admitted, "how messed up can one head be?"

Kitty gazed over at Lorna, "she has an extra person in her head, and every time she's touched anyone and her powers have absorbed from them, a piece of that person has stayed with her.  If she's stayed sane through out all that, I think there's a definite chance not much else can phase her."

Rogue tucked her hair behind her ear, "its kind of funny you mention that," she stated, "I noticed today that since my powers have been negated, I haven't felt anyone's presence in my head anymore – usually I feel the odd persona kind of trying to blend into my own – but it feels like even Carol Danvers is gone…even when the collar reactivated my powers temporarily her thoughts didn't seem to return and blend in with mines once…it's so weird…"

"Maybe she's gone for good," Kitty shrugged.

"I wish," Rogue admitted, she took a bite of fish, "gotta admit, even though I can hear myself think nowwithout her yabbering on in my head in the background like a TV someone left on in the next room and that is SUCH a relief, let me tell you.  I kind of feel like I'm missing something…"

"Ooooh that's not good," Kitty bit her lip, "Hey…your feelings for Remy are a little so-so right now, and you don't have Carol in your head, what if it's her controlling your emotion over Remy?  Did you ever think about that?"  
          Rogue's eyes widened, "no…I didn't…"

Lorna remained quiet, eating, and listening, quite confused as to what they were talking about, really.

"What if Carol Danvers was trying to sabotage your life by forcing you to have feelings for him knowing that he'd hurt you the same way he hurt her – however unintentionally it might be…do you think it's vengeance?"

"No…" Rogue refused to believe it, "Even if that were the case…" Rogue leaned back, folding her arms, "Carol can only influence my thoughts…but she can't control my body…"

"So?" Kitty asked.

Rogue smiled a little, "I have too much physical reaction when I think about him or when he's close about me for it to be Carol's influence…how else would my heart skip a beat?"

Kitty smirked a little, "I hope I have that one day…"

Rogue nodded, "You will."


	3. Chapter 3: Pushed Away

Dismal Angel 2010 - Episode 14

Chapter 3: Pushed Away

          Monet had almost given up hope of ever reaching the small Island of Genosha when it appeared down below, even the stormy weather had not been able to stop her although it had slowed her down so much that it had taken several hours longer to reach the island than it should have.  At first, speeding up through the storm had seemed fine, but she'd found it harder to navigate, and had almost caused a crash directly into a plane.   Again, her better judgement had proven wrong, she was beginning to doubt herself, and continuing to lose hope with every passing hour, but she pressed onwards nonetheless.

          Monet overlooked the island from above, the island was still quite desolate in some areas, although a large portion of it was overrun with the buildings – buildings that gave her chills, reminding her almost of Alcatraz.  It was so cold…and from high up seemed almost abandoned. 

          I wonder how many more mutants are in there along with the X-Men…there could be hundreds, Monet thought worriedly as she pulled the Blackbird closer to the island.  She found it strange, so close to the island now, she thought she might have been picking up some random thoughts of the mutant down there, but her mind remained surprisingly clear.

          I was further away from Muir Island when I was picking up the thoughts of the island inhabitants, Monet fretted.  Something isn't right here…something definitely is not right.

          She decided to investigate closer, still keeping a safe distance from the Island.  She noted no signs of a possible attack.  Everything was surprisingly quiet and calm.  She pulled the jet down a little further, no signs of attack imminent, she decided it was safe.  She prepared herself for a landing and headed down towards the island.

          She had gotten as close to the island as she could when she suddenly felt a force driving the jet away from the island.

          "What the…?" she asked herself in confusion, the jet turned itself naturally away from the island as if it wanted to head back over the way she came.  She turned it back, trying again, again, the unseen force pushed the jet away with seemingly no effort. 

          "What IS this?!" Monet asked.   She glanced down over the Island, seeing nothing there that could possibly be pushing her away.  "I need to get out and check this out," she decided firmly as she unbuckled her safety belt and climbed out of the chair. She let the jet slowly hover over the area, set it to autopilot, and opened the bottom hatch.  She leapt out, taking to flight, and diving downwards.  Towards the island she soared until she approached the same area the blackbird had been pushed away from, and found herself, like the jet, being forced away by unseen force.

          "What IS this?!" she demanded angrily.  She took off to a further away area, and shot through the sky, gaining speed as she went, determined to break through this force, but found herself, as before, just pushed back again.

          "NO!" she screamed at the sky trying to break her way through to the island.  "I did NOT come all this way to not get on the island!"

          Several more times she tried and with no further success.  She retired back to the blackbird, and she pulled it off to the direction of a nearby island.  She felt like crying, defeated. 

          It has to be some kind of force field…that's probably why there were no guards or anyone out on watch…they don't need it with such advanced technology, she thought dully as she dropped onto the very back benches of the blackbird, an equipment closet built into the back of the jet caught her eye.

          "I wonder…" she said, pulling herself up from the seat and heading over to the closet.  "Maybe they have something that would…perhaps stop the effects of it…or something, aren't the X-Men always famed for being prepared?" She said to herself.

Monet yanked hard on the deadbolt and it swung open with a metallic creak.   Everything was shelved or packed away neatly, but a scuba tank caught her eye.  The ridiculousness of it being there made her laugh to herself.  "What would they have that for up in the air?" she asked, raising an eyebrow at the thought.

Monet chewed her lip, looking at it, "can I use this?" she asked herself.  She wandered back to the head of the jet, gazed out of the windows, she stood, folded armed, as the jet smoothly circled the island. 

There WAS water surrounding the Island of course, and this intrigued Monet a great deal.  "I wonder…" she said softly.  "If the force field is a complete sphere or if it's simply a dome, and only remains on the surface…" she frowned with a smirk.   "I guess I'm just going to have to find out for myself…" she grinned.

Rogue and Kitty were clearing their breakfast trays into some large garbage bins in the canteen, the room was alive with talk, and Rogue felt confident enough that the noise would cover any eavesdropping from the clones. 

"Thought of any plans to get out of here, yet?" Rogue asked of Kitty hopefully.

"Is the pope really Michael Jackson's biological father?" Kitty asked, her tone downcast, her expression less than cheerful as usual.  The cut on her head had turned purplish, and the flesh around the wound had bruised severely.  Kitty looked as drained as Rogue felt.

"No," Rogue answered, dejected, she pushed her hair away from her face.  Her hair was matted and limp, greasy and unwashed.  Her skin felt hot, and slightly sunburned, she'd been in the sun too long, her cheeks burned in the heat of the canteen.

Kitty looked the exact opposite.  Kitty's hair had grown frizzy and taken on it's natural curl, her skin had fallen very pale, her eyes dark underneath, the girl had not eaten, and it was beginning to show.  Even when she moved it showed her weakness. 

"Bingo," Kitty responded to Rogue's answer as she winced, and scraped fishbones off of her plate.  She'd let one of the hungrier women at her table eat the food – Kitty was hungry, but not hungry enough to eat fish.  Strictly vegetarian, Kitty would have rather ate the plate.  "Every time I get to thinking something might be possible…I…just get so disheartened…look at all the mutants here, Rogue…if they can't do it, what makes you think we can?"

Rogue could barely believe it, but Kitty was sounding more like her old self than she'd ever heard before.  It was so unlike her.  "You sound like the old me," she mused sadly, she gazed out over the cafeteria.  A woman in a dark grey suit caught her eye.  Twining through the mutants in orange, she walked with a confident businesslike stride, her dark blonde hair was pulled tightly into a bun at the back of her head.  She wore fashionable black rimmed glasses.

Kitty touched Rogue's arm to gain her attention, "something wrong?"

"I…I know that woman…from somewhere…" Rogue whispered, "I…I can't think where from…"

It was true there was something undeniably familiar about her.  She was approaching, as the doorway was near the garbage bins.  As she passed Rogue she glanced at her, almost knowingly, one eyebrow slightly rising.  Her mouth twitching in the slightest smile.

Rogue felt a shudder, this woman knew who she was as well, and Rogue couldn't completely understand why.  She gave the woman's delicate face a good look.  She had to be in her thirties, the face held much more wisdom than a women of a younger age.  She had a perfect nose that ended in a slight point, high cheekbones, and large wide eyes that glittered behind those oval glasses – startling of most was the colours of her eyes, one a brilliant pale green, and a warm coffee brown. 

When she was gone, Rogue drew her breath, "How do I know that woman…"

"I have no clue…" Kitty admitted, "but…did you check out the look she gave you?  She totally recognised you…I saw it in her eyes…"

"Her eyes are two different colours…that feels like that should mean something to me…" Rogue admitted softly.

Kitty shrugged, "Maybe we went to school with her when we were younger…y'know, at Bayville high."

"No…" Rogue shook her head, "she's way older than we are…she had to be at least in her mid thirties…"

Kitty gave another shrug, "then I don't know…"

"Hey!  You two, never mind loitering around.  Get back to work…!" one of the clones yelled, approaching, his black and red eyes blazing with fury.  It was obvious these clones had little patience.

Rogue had finally had enough, her mind felt as if it had literally snapped.  Before she'd known what she was doing she lashed out to punch.

"ROGUE, NO!" Kitty cried, she tried to grab her friend, to prevent it somehow, but was too late.  Rogue had caught the clone in the face, and she saw as the clone's head swung around blood splattering from his mouth. 

Rogue tried to attack again, but this time before she had the chance, electricity shot through her, jolting her until she felt as if every nerve in her body was on fire and rattling inside her skin.  She could hear her jangled cries as she convulsed, dropping to the ground, body seizing, and then it stopped, although the pain did not.

"STOP IT!" Kitty screamed hysterically.  One of the other clones on guard duty had activated the MX2Beetle.  Rogue twitched violently for several minutes once the shocks had stopped.  Kitty fell to her knees to help her, "Oh my god, Rogue…" tears poured down her face, "Rogue…!"

The clone that Rogue had punched violently kicked Rogue in the side several times, Rogue gave a groan of pain, but seemed hardly capable of moving to prevent it, she slightly rolled over, he caught her stomach and Rogue gasped trying to breathe.

"Don't mess with us.  We got the upper hand now.  You're not in the X-Men anymore.  You're a prisoner, don't forget it!" the clone kicked Rogue up the side of the face.  Rogue rolled onto her side with the impact, pain exploding in her head.

Kitty couldn't summon the strength to fight the man who'd done this to her friend despite fury seared through her soul at the thought of what he'd done. 

"I could have killed her…" the Clone uttered, "let that be a lesson—to ALL of you!" he cried, gesturing to all of the other prisoners who had watched in absolute terror.  He turned to the nearest clone, "Thirty-two," he called it's name, "get her back to her cell, lock her in there."

"But she's HURT!" Kitty cried, "she needs medical attention!"

"Do you want the same?!" the clone asked, Kitty noted the number on his uniform was Ten. 

Kitty recoiled slightly, watching as a now stunned and injured Rogue was lifted into the arms of the clone number Thirty-two, and taken away. 

"Get back to work," Clone ten uttered, and walked away with an angry stride.

Kitty tried to wipe her tears, she was trembling with fright. 

"Kitty…what happened!?!"

Kitty turned to see Jean approaching, she looked as tired and drawn as Kitty was.  "They…he…he just…he…" Kitty could barely get the words out.

Ororo ran over from where she'd been, "I saw…they shocked her with the collar, and attacked her…I tried to get over, but I was held back by a large man…he told me I'd be killed if I tried to intervene…" she also had tears in her eyes, she looked more frightened than Kitty had ever seen her.

"That was number Ten," said Lorna as she approached from where she'd been watching, "Number ten runs the clones duties…he's like the ultimate badass," she said, "he's the most unstable one…you…you guys really need to keep away from him…"

"Thanks for telling us like WAY too late!" Kitty stood up, wiping her tears on her sleeve.   "How can you expect us to help you all?!" she demanded, "we can't even help our fucking selves!" she yelled at the entire crowd that had formed.  She turned and headed for the door intent on making her way back to the laundry.


	4. Chapter 4: Flooded

Dismal Angel 2010 - Episode 14

Chapter 4: Flooded

          Monet pulled on the heavy oxygen tank of the scuba gear she'd found in the equipment closet.  She'd landed the blackbird on a small nearby island that was uninhabited, it would be safe enough for it to remain for now.  She'd covered the jet as much as she could with some foliage to disguise it in case anyone should stumble upon it accidentally or otherwise.  Better safe than sorry, she decided.

          She took off to flight, the heavy oxygen tank did nothing to weigh her down, and she fully appreciated her superhuman strength at that particular moment.  As she was approaching the island in flight, she decided this might be a good time to go under water to investigate a little further.  She pulled her goggles on and placed the breathing equipment mouthpiece into her mouth, braced herself and took off down into the water with a loud splash.

          The water was surprisingly clearer than she'd thought it would be.  The earth under the island was warped slightly, and there was a cave down further into the water that she located with no problem.  She decided to explore and went downwards, slipping silently into the large cavernous opening.  The cave ran deep, deeper than she could fully comprehend the distance it went.  She reached to the side of her goggles and turned on the underwater flashlight.  Light streamed through the water in a perfect beam.

          _Hmmm_, she thought as she swam on down the tunnel, the walls began to grow narrower around her, but this didn't bother her in the slightest.   This cave is incredibly deep, she thought to herself as she continued.  She tried to judge the distance by what she'd seen from the island above. 

She touched the ceiling of the cave, looking up at it carefully.  By my calculations I must be somewhere right under those buildings by now.  That means their force field definitely isn't working under water – if it was a sphere I would have hit by now, surely.

Her thick black hair floated all around her, she frowned and pushed it back, looking up at the ceiling.  _If I'm going to get anywhere, I'm going to have to punch my way through this rock_, she tapped it with her knuckle.  It didn't seem like it would be too difficult, she'd punched holes through rock before, after all.

She braced herself, pulled back a fist and hit the rock hard and fast as she could.  The water did slow down her movement, but it did not stop her from putting a crack in the rock with her extreme strength.  She tried again.  Several tries began to cause the cracks to grow and grow. 

Monet prayed the rock wouldn't cave in around her as it began to seem to give way.  It began to crumble a way.  Chunks as big as her head were falling out of the cracked rock, she moved away a little and watched it fall, heard the heavy rock land with a thud against the rock floor below.

_I'm going to be here all night_, she thought dully.  _I hope the X-Men appreciate this_!

          Kitty Pryde was sent to her cell for the night, after the laundry work was done.  Rogue was lying across the floor as if she'd been thrown there.  She felt panic overwhelm her as she saw her friend there, and she rushed through the open door, hearing it shut loudly behind her with an intense echo that seemed to shake the whole building.

          She dropped to her knees beside Rogue, "Oh my god I've been frantic all day wondering what happened to you.  I've been so worried…" she said softly, she moved Rogue's hair away from her face.  One half of Rogue's face was so swollen her friend seemed barely recognisable.  The swift kick had been enough to damage the whole side of her face so that her eye was blackened and swollen shut, her eyebrow sticky with congealed blood, her cheek puffy and bruised black.

Rogue's other eye opened and she looked at her, she could barely speak, only let out a groan, "s-s-sorry…" her eye tearing up.

          Kitty pulled Rogue up slowly to hug her, "I won't let them do this again, Rogue…I should have tried to stop them…I should have…done something…I stood back and watch it happen…"

          "S' ok," Rogue groaned as she was moved.  "I…should've listened when y' tried t' stop me…"

          Kitty felt the building shake again, "did you feel that?" she asked softly.

          Rogue tried to respond with a light shake of her head.

          "The building shook," Kitty said, "maybe it's an earthquake or…a volcano, or something," she said, "I'm gonna pull you up to the bunk, hold onto me as much as you can.

          "Hurts so much," Rogue recoiled slightly.

          "I know, but you'll be more comfortable on the…metal…mattressless bunk…" Kitty gazed at the bunk nearby, "yeah, just stay on the ground…" she shrugged, letting her friend down gently.

          Rogue sucked in her breath in pain, "any s-s-sign of Remy…?" she asked in a tiny voice as she tried to move to sit up.

          "None…" Kitty located some of the left over fabric from what had once been the nightgown she'd been wearing the night they'd been brought to Genosha.  She ripped off a piece to make a small cloth, and she ran it under the faucet of the small sink.  "I don't even know if Remy is here or not, all I see are these damn hostile clones everywhere…"

          Rogue swallowed, the taste of blood was still in her mouth, "he's here…I…feel 'im…I jus'…know he's here."

          Kitty knelt by her and placed the cloth gently over Rogue's eyebrow to wipe the blood away, "this must be so awful for you, you've been so numb to physical pain all these years, must feel like you're dying…" she bit her lip, she felt like crying for her friend to see the pain she must have been in.  Again, that strange shake came, slight, yet noticeable.  "There it is again…" Kitty whispered.

          "I felt it…" Rogue whispered.

          "Yeah…its just…very slight…but…its there…must be an earthquake?" she asked.

          Rogue winced, "if its an earthquake and this place comes down, we'll all die…"

          Monet kept pounding at the rock ceiling with all her might, pushing into it as much as she could, summoning up all the strength she could muster to try and break through it, she'd taken massive chunks out of it now, a large hole as deep as six feet she'd managed to make through constant pounding.  And then she saw cement.  She'd finally found her way through to one of the buildings.

          If her mouth had not been encasing her breathing equipment, she surely would have smiled wide.  She flew backwards, and upon the floor, crouching down as much as she could.

          This might be it, she told herself in thought.  Direct hit could get me right inside.  She focused all her strength into her fists as she threw them out in front of her and took off soaring upwards through the water, she felt it rush around her as she headed up towards the ceiling. 

          Her fists hit the concrete – then steel.  "Steel reinforced!?!  She demanded.  The steel looked flimsy, she'd been able to split steel with her powers before, she'd broken a steel cannonball in half before with a simple swat.

          She braced herself once more and went downwards, crouching much as she could, and took off once again, determined this would be the final hit.  She came crashing through it and found air above, she hit the ceiling of the room above unexpectedly  with her shoulder, denting the steel ceiling.  The water came flooding in with her, pinning her to the ceiling within seconds.

          Damn you, Monet, when you have a brilliant idea next time remember there are consequences to every action, she thought at herself angrily, she noted an closed doorway underwater, she appeared to be in some kind of basement area of the GMCF.  She swam over to the door and grabbed onto the handle, pulling with all her might.  The water pushing against it did not help things, even with her incredible strength.  She finally managed to open it.  She – along with the water – spilled out into the hallway, she bodysurfed along a corridor that ended in a stairway.  The corridor was flooding just as quickly.  She pulled herself up, and yanking out her breathing apparatus, and throwing the goggles off, she took off up the stairway.

          Kitty looked around the room, "earthquake stopped…" she said to Rogue after a few moments, everything had fallen silent. 

          Rogue drew her breath, "that's a good thing…" she tried to sit up slowly.

          "Careful…you might have broken ribs," Kitty helped her slowly, "god I'd give anything to know what's going on out there right now…" she said, she helped Rogue lean against one of the bunks, then got up onto the other bunk and peered out of the small rectangular window, "everything seems fine out there," she admitted.  

          "There was one big shake…" Rogue uttered, "I felt it…seemed like it was coming from below."

          Kitty nodded, "I noticed that too…" she climbed down. 

          The door swung open, "out, now!" a clone yelled at them.  The first thing they both noticed about the Remy LeBeau clone was that he was soaked from head to foot, his long hair was plastered to his face, his eyelashes spiky, his skin shimmering and pale.

          "What's going on?!" Kitty demanded, she bent down to try and help Rogue up.

          "The research centre is flooding from the subbasements.  We need you to get down there and stop it NOW."

          "What can WE do?!" Kitty demanded.  "Rogue's injured!"

          "You're the X-Men, you'll figure out what to do!" the clone growled.  "Leave her here if she's too much of a weakling to do anything, we haven't got time to fuck around," he uttered.  Kitty noticed the number on his uniform was 10.  She knew better than to mess with this one. 

          "I'll be back as soon as I can," Kitty whispered, she squeezed Rogue's shoulder, then followed the clone out of the cell.

          Kitty turned to see Logan, Bobby and Scott being led down the hall by a few other wet-looking clones, "what do you expect us to do?" she asked Number 10.

          "Stop it from getting to subbasement 2!" Clone number 10 uttered. 

          Kitty glanced to the others, they looked as worried as she did.


	5. Chapter 5: The Subbasements

Dismal Angel 2010 - Episode 14

Chapter 5: The Subbasements

          Monet ran up the staircase and along a small corridor, a steel door faced her and she pulled it open quickly, rushed through and slammed it shut.  She glanced down seeing water sliding along the floor in the groves of the steel flooring.   "This steel door won't hold that water for long," she thought, she pulled off her oxygen tank, put it aside, she took a look around. 

She was in some kind of bunking area – it was a hallway, the walls were lined with several bunks, they were numbered.  Compulsively neat and orderly.

          Something told Monet that this might be where those clones she'd seen would be bunking when they weren't doing other less than respectable things.  She quickly walked along the hallway.  She shivered, it was cold down here.  Colder than it seemed it should have.

          Monet was cautious as she passed the bunks, just in case there might be someone lurking around, but all was silent.  Then, a high pitched sound broke the calm silence that had fallen around her, and made her heart almost stop within her chest.  The low lighting in the hall turned blood red and began to flash as sirens were activated. 

          "Hmm, looks like they've noticed something's wrong," Monet took to the air and flew quickly across the hall, she rushed through an open doorway.  It was once she'd gotten there that the random thoughts began to push into her mind.  "NO!" she cried in dismay, "not now, I can't do this if I can't think!" she held her head, the onslaught of emotion overwhelming her.  The sadness and grief of those who'd spent more than a year inside, some more than two.  She could almost feel the physical pain of those who had been hurt.  Somewhere in it all, she picked up the thoughts of Kitty Pryde.

          {How can we stop this stupid flood, we're not miracle workers…I mean LOOK at it…oh my god, we're going to drown…we're going to turn to a watery grave.}

          Monet had always thought Kitty a tad overdramatic but she wondered if it was true, the basements seemed to be flooding rather quickly, they were down far deeper than Monet had anticipated, which meant that the water would rise to it's natural level before stopping, that meant all the basements would be flooded, and Monet had a sneaking suspicion that the water level was probably a hundred feet higher than she was now. 

          "Another miscalculation gone wrong…" she uttered.  The thoughts still attacking her, only occasional ones making sense.   Something else was happening to her powers, they seemed to be growing at an immense speed.  She could feel a presence, a trapped presence somewhere nearby.  She could detect no thoughts, and if she could she felt they might be jumbled with the rest.

          "Force the other thoughts out," she told herself angrily, pushing her soaking hair back from her face, she left the bunking area through the nearby open door, she went through a maze of hallways.  The presence was pulling her like a magnet, drawing her to it.  Her senses tingled the closer she got.  

          The thoughts began to drop away the harder she focused on closing out all other thoughts but her own, still some remained.  One thought particular broke in that chilled her, although she had no explanation why.

          {Something tells me we've been invaded…yet the sensors are picking up nothing…}.

          Monet felt the hairs on the back of her neck standing on end, the voice in her head was cold, and almost emotionless.  She shivered, but continued.  The thoughts felt far enough away that she didn't feel in immediate danger.  Something on the floor caught her eye. 

It was a small rectangular shaped object, it looked like a mini-sized remote, almost like a electronic car alarm remote – it even had the small metal ring for it to latch onto keys.  There were five different buttons on the face of the remote, all circled with a specific colour, red, yellow, green, blue and white.  No text to indicate what they were for.  "What is this?" she asked, she chewed her lip, looking at it.  She slipped it onto a loop on the belt of the uniform she was wearing and continued down the hall.  

          "Whatever it is, I'll figure it out later…it was obviously dropped in a hurry, whatever it is…" she told herself sternly, the presence was close, she could feel it within her mind.  It seemed familiar, and yet, at that moment she couldn't place it.  She reached the end of a corridor in the labyrinth of steel walls.  A pair of sliding doors stared at her.  A circular shaped groove was in the wall, and in the dead centre, there was a slot at the left side of the threshold indicated she needed some kind of key to get in.  A very wide…long key.

          She glanced down to her hip, where the remote was hanging, the bottom of it was narrow, and looked as if it might fit, she turned it over in her hand.  Yes, there was a sensor at the back of it.  She took it off the loop and slipped the edge into the slot.  Nothing seemed to be happening.  She twisted the remote a little, the whole circle the lock was based on turned with it, and the doors slid open.

          Another identical set of doors sat behind the ones that had just opened, and as she stepped through, the doors closed behind her.  She opened the next set using the remote again, and the doors slid open, a further pair.

          Her senses were going wild, she could feel she was very close to someone, a mutant, she could feel the energy now.  What is this?" she asked as she opened the third door and came across a fourth door.  The fourth door was different, the metal was different, it was adamantium.  She'd seen that texture before, it was easy to spot right away.   It had a different type of lock, and she despaired as she met with it.  There were three buttons, but pressing just one indicated no response.

          "Ah…tricky," she said to herself softly, "I believe that if this is to work…I must press the buttons in the right order…ah…it'd be so much easier if I could just punch my way through this…"

          It took several attempts to get it right, but after trying what seemed like seventeen times, the door eventually opened, just as she'd been coming to the end of her tether with it.

          A loud beep indicated it had worked, and the doors slid open slowly.  She gazed into to the room, her senses screamed at her that she seemed to be in the right place.  She was in a large room, the walls were steel, the floors, the ceiling, everything.  Her footsteps echoed as she stepped in.

          There was a man shackled to the wall, his hands completely encased, his long brown hair fallen completely over his face.  He was completely nude, and there were no signs of his clothing nearby.

          Monet did not recognise him at first.  She noted a scar upon his chest that seemed to have some significance, although she didn't understand why, until he weakly raised his head to see her there, through the tangles of long brown hair, she saw the glitter of a glowing red eye in the dim lighting.  "Mr LeBeau!" she gasped, she rushed over.

          "D' I know you?" he asked with a weak yet gentle tone, he raised an eyebrow.  His eyes were tired and dark, he looked thoroughly exhausted and drained.

          "I'm from Xavier's," Monet assured, she gazed at the strange shackles over his hand, trying to understand how to undo them.  "How do I undo these things?" she asked.

          "Y' got a remote?"

          "Yes," Monet responded.

          "Hit yellow, green, red, white and blue in sequence," he stated, "I watched them the last time they did it," he drew his breath sharply, "why are you here?"

          "I was on Muir Island when the X-Men were abducted by…whoever is behind this," Monet said, she gazed at the remote for a moment.

"The X-Men!?!  They're here?!"

"I'm not sure about the rest," Monet responded, "But I know Miss Pryde is here, I'm a telepath, I sensed her thoughts…that's how I found you," Monet said, then pressed the buttons she'd been instructed to in sequence, yellow, green, red, white and blue.  A soft beep indicated it had worked, and the shackles released Remy LeBeau, who fell into her arms weakly.

          "Are you alright?"

          "Nothin' that a cold beer, a shower and a nice hot woman won't cure," he grumbled, "we gotta get out of here before they send the clones," he rushed towards the door, naked as the day he was born.

          "Uhm, may I ask why you're not wearing anything?" Monet asked following quickly.

          "I got too many tricks up my sleeves, they say, so they took my clothes off so they can see I got no sleeves to hide tricks up," Remy stated quickly, he pushed the buttons on the door of the exit to open them.  Monet noted how precisely he'd done it, he'd obviously seen it done before. 

          "What do you mean?" she asked, following him.

          Remy took the remote from her, "in other words, every time they locked me away I found a way out," he stated, "I'd manage to pickpocket remotes off of the clones and hide them in my sleeves – that's until they found out about it…damn them, they get smarter every day…"

          Monet followed him, "what's that thing on your neck?" she asked, noticing the glint of silver and the strange purple liquid that was in a tiny vial behind clear glass.

          "Trouble, that's what it is," Remy replied, he tapped a few buttons on the remote and it fell off his neck and landed on the floor with a clank.  He looked down to the floor, noting slight streams of water along the tiles, "what's this…"

          "Oh…yes, I uhm, kind of flooded the place," Monet said, "which is why we need to get to the ground as quickly as possible."

          "Flooding is good," Remy stated, "means their security rooms gonna be flooded, it'll short circuit everything," he stated, "c'mon."

          "Can we find you some clothes?" Monet asked, slightly flustered.

          "Later, we got no more time, we need to get the X-Men and break everyone out of this place…"

          "What IS this place exactly?" Monet asked.

          "It's mutant Hell," Remy responded, "lets go find the X-Men and put this shithole out of business."


	6. Chapter 6: Unexpected Turn of Events

Dismal Angel 2010 - Episode 14

Chapter 6: The Unexpected Turn of Events

          Kitty groaned as she dragged a plastic bucket through the water and threw the cold sea water into a large plastic laundry cart, "We're never going to get rid of all this water!" she complained.

          Scott Summers was standing at the edge of a stairway forcing all his optic beams into the water trying to evaporate the water with the heat but he knew as much as the others there was very little chance of this working.

          Bobby Drake had made a wall of ice to stop the water from going any further upwards towards the next subbasement.  Subbasement 5 was already completely submerged and subbasement 4 was almost there. 

          Kurt and Kitty, plus several others who were not affiliated with the X-Men, were busy trying to keep the water level in the basement from getting any higher by using buckets, pots, anything that would hold water, to empty the water into the laundry cards which would be taken out and emptied into the yards.  Nothing was working. 

          "We're going to end up all drowning down here," Kurt said worriedly.

          "I don't want to die down here," Kitty shivered, as she kept throwing the water out into the laundry cart.  Anyway, we're the X-Men...we'll figure out something."

          "I hope so," Kurt despaired.

          Kitty looked at him, "Kurt, we'll make it out of here somehow…I mean…someone from Muir Island or something has to have noticed we're missing by now…for all we know…they could be sending a search party out for us."

          "What chances are there of them finding us though?" Kurt asked.

          Kitty could see the distress on his face, he'd had things bad.  He'd obviously taken his anger out on the clones too, for he was bruised and hurt just as the others seemed to be. 

          "I knew something like this was sure to happen sooner or later," Kurt sighed as she scooped out more water and threw it to the cart.

          Kitty kept working hard, she could feel the eyes of the clones on them, and she didn't want to anger them further.

          "I…I know things between us have been iffy since…I kissed you in the elevator…"

          Kitty shrugged, "forget about it, ancient history, right?"

          "Kitty…I never really stopped caring about you, and I…I just see how things are with Rogue and Remy, you know, and I'm scared that one day something will happen between us and we'll never get the chance to say the things we wanted to say, and I don't want to spend the rest of my life without having never having let you know I loved you…" he looked at her.

          Kitty sighed, "Kurt, seriously, I love you too, but…it's just not going to work…not anymore…and I promise, we'll discuss it WHEN we get out of here… I promise…"

          Kurt looked away from her, "fine."

          "I'm sensing a presence up here," Monet stated as she led the way running along the large hall with it's cell doors on every side.  "I'm still new to this, I can't tell who it is yet…" she explained.

          Remy ran through the halls still bare, "I haven't done this much streaking since I fifteen!" he followed on.

          Monet rolled her eyes, "can you PLEASE be serious for at least an hour?"

          "Serious?" he asked, "Monet, the shit I been through in the last seven years, if I'm any more serious I'm going to throw a noose round my neck," Remy uttered, he followed on.

          Monet shuddered, she'd inexplicably sensed what had happened in the mansion with the clone's suicide, it hadn't been up until she'd seen the real Remy here today that she'd known the truth.  But still, what he'd said did not sit well with her.  Now she understood why Rogue had been so highly strung over the past few weeks.   "Rogue has already been devastated enough over your death," she turned and looked at him.

          "HUH?" He asked, confusedly.

          "Explanations later," Monet stopped in front of a door, her telepathic senses told her someone was behind the door.  "Open the door."

          Remy slipped the remote key through the lock and the doors slid open, they gazed inside.  Professor Xavier was inside there, sitting on the floor against a wall.

          "Monet!" the Professor said in absolute shock.  "Remy…what—how did you get away?"

          "We'll explain later," Monet rushed in and pulled the Professor up into her arms.

          "Get the Professor out of here," Remy said, "far away as possible."

          "The blackbird isn't far…"

          "Take this," he gave her the key, "take the Professor to the blackbird, when you come back, use your powers to sense out any remainders in the cells…use the keys, the doors are all adamantium, it's the only way to get them out."

          "I think the X-Men may be down in the basements…with every other mutant here, my powers went crazy when I was close to where the flood was, I know that's where Miss Pryde was."

          "Then that's where I'm going…after a little stop on the way."

          "What stop?" the Professor asked.

          "The clones…they got this chip in them.  IN case somethin' goes wrong with them they can be deactivated completely…kind of like robots…" Remy said, "there's a room in the subbasement that does it.  My guess is they're all down there trying to stop the flood, no one will be guarding the control centre."

          "Good luck," Monet said, "I'll get the Professor away and I'll be back as soon as I can," and holding onto the Professor, she flew off.

          A strange high frequency sound rang out over the entire subbasement as the mutants in the area were all trying to stop the flood from progressing, they all grabbed their ears and clenched their teeth as it did so. 

          Jean dropped to her knees, half submerged in water, "What is that?!" she screamed.

          The mutants all looked around them, one by one, the clones became strangely stiff, and then dropped into the water, with a splash, or dropped to the floor from where they stood.  They couldn't understand it.

          "They're dying!" Kitty cried through the terrible screeching.  "Oh my god, maybe we're about to be rescued!"

          "Highly unlikely."

          A familiar voice rang out from the top of the stairwell they were at, and they all looked up, surprised to see Magneto standing on a metallic platform that was suspended in the air by his powers, "despite the clones may have stopped working, this doesn't mean a thing," he uttered.

          "Magneto!" Scott growled, "I should have known!"

          Kitty gaped, "you're behind this all."

          "One of three," Magneto smirked, he gestured to a woman who was standing on the platform behind him, "some of you may be familiar with miss Chantal LeBeau by reputation."

          "Chantal…LeBeau…" Kitty said the name to herself, "YOU'RE Remy's sister?!"

          "Remy isn't my brother not by blood or anything else," Chantal scoffed, "he's been a trouble maker ever since he found out it was I who was creating the mutant X drug."

          "I don't understand!" Kurt cried out, "why are we all in here, if you…I mean, Magneto…you wanted to destroy humankind, not imprison mutants…or has your beliefs changed."

          "Oh, no, you see, my beliefs are still very much the same…" Magneto smirked.   "I want every mutant I can get on this island, and once the buildings are completed and we have enough inhabitants…well," he lowered the platform, "I'm going to reshape the world the way it SHOULD be…"

          "You're going to…what?  Destroy every human on earth?" Kitty asked raising an eyebrow, "isn't that a bit of an impossible accomplishment?"

          "I have a force field around this entire island," Magneto responded, "nothing gets in, nothing gets out – unless we say so.  Once we're ready, all it takes is releasing the right toxins into the air and within a week, humankind would be no more…and then we begin again…building the world the way we want."

          "You're insane!" Jean cried at him, she used her telekinetic powers to the air to try and lunge at him, but Magneto pulled out a remote, and pressed a button.

          Powerful electric surges ran through each and every mutant in the area, and they all squealed in pain.

          Remy turned towards the door to leave when he met his nemesis.  In the shadows he appeared, two red eyes.

          "Again, you almost got away with it, LeBeau," the voice coldly said.

          "I am going to get away with it this time.  The clones are all completely disabled."

          "But the mutants don't have their powers back," the cold voice replied.

          "We don't need our powers to get out of this godforsaken place, Sinister," Remy uttered, "I did it seven times…without mines," he frowned.  Remy grabbed a hold of the control panel nearby him.  He'd pulled every lever on the panel to disable all the clones. 

          "But you've never been able to defeat me without your powers…" Sinister laughed softly, "you can't even defeat your own demons," he stepped out of the shadows and into the light. 

          Sinister almost seemed as if he were entirely constructed of silver, he moved like liquid silver, and when he talked it almost sounded like metal scraping on metal.  His eyes glowed like rubies within his pale face.

          Remy began to focus every ounce of his energy upon his hands, "you're right, I can't defeat you without my powers, but I can do it with."

          "Your MX2beetle…" Sinister's red eyes widened.  "Where—"

          "It's gone!" Remy frowned, "just like this miserable hellhole will be once I'm through with it..." the control panel began to grow hot under his fingers, it was larger so it took more effort to charge up with the kinetic energy that was his power.  "You and Magneto, and even that stupid bitch sister of mines…you won't have ANYTHING to hold us back anymore…your plan wasted...you're not going to have us here and torture us like slaves anymore!"

          "It's a shame you don't have the same disposition the clones do, LeBeau.  You'd have made a great leader."

          "I won't betray the X-Men!" Remy cried, "and you can't force me to…"

          Sinister began to move forwards, approaching steadily.

          "Stand back!" Remy cried, "I'll let go of the panel, I mean it, and you know what gonna happen…" he frowned, "I'm not stupid…I listened enough during my years of imprisonment here to know that this control everything in the fuckin' building…it keeps the signal steady to the MX2Beetles…if I let go…EVERYTHING goes kaput…"

          "If you let go of that, you'll die too," Sinister frowned.

          "Most likely," Remy smirked, "but at least the others won't have to live their lives like prisoners for the dream of two mad men and a deranged woman.  It'd be like Killing myself to live."

          "You don't want to do that…"

          Remy smirked.  "Don't I?" he asked, a feverish expression built in his eyes.  And then he let go of the control panel.

They all heard the loud explosion coming from the basements above, it seemed to echo, travelling down corridors and stairwells, shaking the entire structure.  The collars all began to drop off one by one, falling into the water with heavy splashes.  Every mutant put a hand to their neck in awe as it happened, not completely understanding what had happened.

The expression on Magneto's face was priceless, Kitty saw it and felt complete euphoria of a victory seeing him that way.  He looked as if he'd just been slapped in the face, and was so indignant about it.  But he did not remain around long enough to see the outcome, knowing that a thousand mutants in the GMCF had just had their powers released all at once.  Even he was incapable of controlling that.  The metallic panel beneath him and Chantal LeBeau morphed into a complete sphere surrounding them and they shot off upwards, it seemed to melt a hole in the steel ceiling above, disappearing completely from sight.

          "Oh my god!  Our powers!" Kurt said.  He tested his powers and teleported two feet to Kitty's right just to test.  His expression was relieved, he'd been lifted from the depression of a possibility of never being free.

          Kitty grabbed onto Kurt's arm, "well don't just stand there gaping, let's go find Rogue and get the hell out of here."

          Jean pressed her hands to her head as her telepathic abilities began to return to her within minutes, {Everyone look for the nearest exit, and escape as quickly as you can!} she sent out a telepathic message to everyone in the building.

          "What do you think happened?" Bobby asked as he and Ororo began to make their way up the staircase.

          "Someone intervened most likely!" Ororo stated, "Lets not spend time dwelling on it.  We must get out of this place and off this island as soon as we can.

          Rogue had been lying across the floor when the adamantium doors slid open and footsteps approached her, she opened her eyes and gazed up to find a damp Monet St Croix standing over her.  "Monet?" she asked, thinking she might be possibly hallucinating from a fever or from the pain.

          "Yes," Monet said, pulling her up from the ground quickly.  As she did, Rogue's neck swung to the side and the MX2Beetle dropped from her neck and landed upon the cold floor with a loud clatter.

          "What's going on?" Rogue asked groggily.

          "I'm…not exactly sure yet," Monet said, looking at the MX2Beetle on the floor, "but I think we're all about to be saved…" she pulled Rogue's arm around her neck, "hold on…" she said, and they left the cell.  Monet took to flight, flying down the large main hall where all the cells were connected.  Swarms of the mutants were coming through hallways every which way, running, looks of happiness, disbelief and haste on their faces.

          Monet spotted Scott Summers and Jean Grey, "the X-Men!" she said excitedly, and flew down to meet with them.

          "Monet!" Jean said in surprise, "what are you doing here?!"

          "Saving our asses, looks like," Rogue said weakly, she winced in pain from her ribs, "what's going on…"

          "We heard a loud explosion…The collars fell off…the clones all collapsed.  Something sure is going on…" Scott replied.

          Monet looked around, not seeing any sign of Remy LeBeau, she hoped he'd made it – not that she had any particular affection for the man, but it seemed so sad to have rescued him just to have him die.  Still, it was obvious all this had been because of him.

          "Magneto was behind it all!" Kitty yelled, coming through the crowd, happy to see her friend, "AND Remy's Sister – that's who you saw!" she said to Rogue.

          "We need to get outside…" Jean suggested, "we need to try and get everyone off this island – in case any more explosions occur – we need to get everyone as safe as possible.

          "What about this force-field thing?" Scott asked, "Magneto mentioned it…he said no one gets in or out unless he said so…"

          "Force-field…" Monet mouthed, "yes, that's why I couldn't get through…the force field was what was keeping me from getting onto the island – it kept pushing the blackbird – and even me away…is it possible it might have been disabled?"

          "Hopefully…" Jean said, leading the way out.  The hordes of imprisoned mutants all followed, noisy and excited.  The large doors to the front of the building had been opened by Monet on her way out, and they all spilled outside in to the yards.

          "Here, take Rogue," Monet said, passing Rogue over to Hank McCoy.  I'll fly up there and see if it's still activated," she said.

          "Be careful," Jean called out.

          Monet took to the sky, the further she got the more she could feel the push of the force field, and finally she was pushed away, it would not get her get any further, "No, it's still activated!" she said as she got back down, she landed on the ground lightly.

          Jean looked up, "it's probably a device Magneto constructed, god knows how we can de-activated, or even where it is…and it could be risky going back into search for it – especially with the basements flooded…"

          Hank looked up, "If Magneto created it, and it pushes people – and objects – away from it, its possible that it uses the principles of magnetism or anti-magnetism.  Instead of pulling an object or person towards it, it pushes it away," he said, "in theory of course."

          Lorna Dane, who'd been nearby, gave a slight cough, "uhm…does this mean then, that – in theory of course – that anti-magnetism could be turned around into Magnetism?" she asked, she ran her hand absently through her green hair.

          "Possibly…who's to say?" Hank asked, "how could we do this without even finding the device that operates it and switching its settings…?"

          "Well," Lorna trailed off as gazed uncertainly at the sky, "Let me try…" she said, she cracked her knuckles and held her hands to the sky, "you…uhm…black leather outfit girl…" she gestured to Monet, "go up there again…"

          Monet raised her eyebrow at the woman, "I have a name.  It's MONET," she huffed, feeling more herself than she had in a while.

"Monet," Lorna said firmly but smiling nonetheless, "can you be a dear and go up there again?" she asked more politely.

Monet did as she was told, she didn't feel like arguing and she still wanted to be of some use.  Obeying Lorna's request, she went up into the air.

          Lorna closed her eyes tightly and threw her powers at it.  The air around her hands seemed to warp and tremble.  A small area of the sky to where Monet was heading seemed to do the same, almost as if intense heat were distorting the image of the sky. 

          Monet could feel the pull of it, almost like being sucked into a whirlpool, "It's working!  I'm being pulled instead of pushed away!!" she screamed before being thrown out of the force-field altogether and tossed downwards into the sea.

          "Oops…" Lorna winced, "I hope she won't take that as personal…"

          "You can manipulate magnetism?" Scott asked in awe.

          Lorna smiled a little, "didn't think it'd be that useful up until now."

"There's always a use somewhere for a mutant power," Logan responded.  
          Rogue was holding onto Hank, "has anyone seen Remy yet?" she asked.

          There was no answer.

          Rogue sighed, "maybe he never was here at all…" she felt tears sting her eyes, this all felt as if it had been for nothing despite the rescue of the mutants on the island, despite the defeat of Magneto…to her, it just…felt as if nothing had been worth it at all.

          Kitty touched Rogue's arm, "I'm sure he's somewhere…safe…just maybe not here..." she assured, then looked around, "has anyone seen Piotr…haven't seen him either…" she said, "but I know he was definitely here with us…"

          "I haven't seen him," Logan responded.

          "What are we going to do about all the mutants on here?" Jean asked of Scott.

          "Take some in the blackbird, we could always arrange some private planes to go and some of the others up…it may take some time, but eventually they'd all get away.

          Piotr was nearby, he walked over, "is everyone alright?" he asked.  He had been in the back of the crowd elsewhere when everything else had occurred.

          Kitty threw herself into his arms, "you're okay!" she hugged him tightly.  Relief flowed through her and she promised herself once this was truly over she had to tell him how she felt.  The thought of almost having spent their entire lives in this horrendous prison and never having had the chance to say she loved him ran through her mind, and she didn't want to risk that.  It was like Kurt had said earlier.   She didn't want to spend the rest of her life regretting never having said she loved him.

          Kurt gave Kitty a strange look, she hadn't hugged anyone else, why him?  This did not seem good, no, not good at all.

          Piotr smiled and let go of her, "I am fine," he assured, "a few bruises, but I think we all have those," he touched the cut on Kitty's head.

          "Tell me about it," Kitty smirked a little.  "I've never felt so vulnerable in my life."

          Kurt nearby uttered the words, "me neither."

          They were all standing several feet away from the building when a hush came over them all, they were all standing staring at something – and there was no telling what, they were all circling around the door.  A few gasps broke the silence. 

          "What's going on…?" Jean asked confusedly, she gently rose into the air using her telekinetic abilities to see what all the fuss was about.  "Oh my word," she put her hand to her mouth.

          "What is it?" Hank asked, and carefully pushed his way through the crowd with Rogue still in his arms, ear to see what she had seen.

          A naked man stood in the open doorway of the GMCF building, his long brown hair slightly singed, his tanned skin slightly burned, bruised, and cut.  He was unabashed in his nudity.  There was a scar on his chest, and if you looked close enough, you'd notice a tiny spade tattooed into the flesh on his left hip.

          Rogue felt her breath catch in her throat and tears of joy broke from her eyes.  "REMY!"

(The end!  Or is it?  DUN DUN DUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN

Yeah, I pushed it forward a bit, I've made people wait far too long for this, so anyway, there it is…remember and review.  As usual, thanks to the ones who review the most, ishandahalf, Rogue4787, and of course, my crack 'ho, Aro.  Where would I be without y'all?)


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